Energy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have not spoken on this chapter before but I welcome provisions in the private rented sector. I am not attacking the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, but I recall it being said that nothing would happen in the private rented sector until 2015 when the regulations can come in. That is assuming that landlords do not allow all this to happen, as my noble friend said. There are many landlords and, as the noble Lord, Lord O’Neill, said, not all of them are unscrupulous. I like to think that a lot of good landlords will want their tenants to use these provisions because, as my noble friend Lord Dixon-Smith said, it will increase the value of the property; it will make the tenant warmer; it will increase the well-being of the tenants; and it will make them want to stay longer. A lot of landlords and tenants will want to do this deal well before regulations have to come into place. I want to play devil’s advocate here, following what my noble friend Lady Noakes said in her Amendment 20M, which talked about, "““consideration of the willingness of tenants””." Clause 37(2) requires local authorities to issue notices to the landlords of each domestic private rented property, "““(c) which falls below such level of energy efficiency … as is provided for by the regulations””." Subsection (3) states: "““The notice is one requiring the landlord to make to the property such relevant energy efficiency improvements as are identified by the notice””." I might be splitting hairs, but should not subsection (3) read: "““The notice is one requiring the landlord””," to allow, "““such relevant energy efficiency improvements””," to be made to the property, "““as are identified by the notice””?" My thinking is that it could be the tenant who wants this done and the landlord who is dragging his heels, and that therefore one needs this notice to make sure that the landlord allows the tenant to sign up to the Green Deal. I have three questions on this clause. First, is the notice issued because tenants want to sign up to the Green Deal but the landlord is dragging his heels? If that is the case, that is fine. Or, secondly, is the notice issued because the property falls below the standard set out in subsection (2)(c) as provided for in the regulations? I have a slight concern about this because, as my noble friend Lady Maddock was saying, it is about local authorities assessing which properties need to have this sort of work done on them and then making landlords do it. Where are the tenants in all that? No one has asked them and there is no provision for their agreement. This is where Amendment 20M tabled by my noble friend Lady Noakes comes in, which would insert a provision for, "““a consideration of the willingness of tenants””." Tenants are absolutely vital in this because if they do not want to sign the contract, there will be no Green Deal and the thing will not work. My third question follows on from there: what happens when a notice is issued and the property is vacant? Does the landlord sign up to the Green Deal, and how does the golden rule fit in? I cannot get my head around that one and I think it needs a little further consideration. As the Bill is written, it assumes that tenants are going to sign up to these regulations, but they may not want to do so because, say, they are moving in two months’ time. A tenant may say, ““I am not signing a contract. I am not signing anything””. We need something included here about the tenant. On a slightly different point, if a landlord has a number of properties and wants to do the Green Deal programme with all his tenants, what if a few of them refuse to do it? Are there going to be regulations saying that a tenant must sign up to the Green Deal? I presume, however, that you cannot force him to sign a contract. We have provisions that put the onus on the landlord to sign up to the Green Deal, but absolutely nothing for the tenant. If a good landlord—there are good landlords—wants to do the Green Deal on all his properties, he could be held up in a row of terraced houses by two tenants saying, ““No, I am not going to do that””, in which case the deal might fall through.